Police and Columbia University Public Safety are searching for the perpetrator of a mugging that took place Tuesday at 468 Riverside Dr.ive and 119th Street.
At around 9:35 p.m. Tuesday, a 27-year-old female Manhattan resident walking northbound on Riverside Drive “observed a double-parked car with a male standing outside of an older Crown Victoria type of vehicle,” police said. Three males also walking northbound “slowed down to let her past, and as she passed, one of the suspects grabbed her purse, spun her around, and pushed her to the sidewalk,” police reported.
The suspects—all three described as about 25 years old and 5 feet 9 inches tall—then drove north on Riverside Drive, according to a security alert from the Department of Public Safety. One suspect was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, and the other two were wearing black hooded sweatshirts, the alert said. Police said that while the victim lost her wallet with cash and personal identification, she was not seriously injured.
One doorman who was on duty Tuesday night said the victim ran into his building crying and then called 911. The police took the woman in the back of a police car to look for the suspects, he said.
“She was going for a walk in the city—you’re never safe. You never know what’s going to happen. I guess you’re never safe,” said the doorman, who declined to be named because he is a Columbia employee.
While 468 Riverside is not owned by Columbia, its neighboring buildings are University-owned housing for faculty. The victim is not a Columbia affiliate, Public Safety confirmed.
Public Safety vehicles regularly patrol the area, but some characterize the practice as ineffective. “They [Public Safety] are supposed to have patrol units going up, but they go pretty fast, so I don’t know if they can see anything at all,” said the doorman on duty at the time of the mugging.
“Tell him security’s never around when you need them!” a second employee said to the doorman being interviewed.
Another doorman cited Public Safety’s increased presence following the incident. Officers have been “checking suspicious characters,” he said. “I don’t know how much you can deter crime when someone jumps out [of a car], grabs your purse, and jumps back in,” he said.
Most employees interviewed said crime in the immediate area has been occasional and limited to robberies. “It’s been on and off. They used to break into cars, not so much anymore,” a fourth doorman said. “There is robbery—it’s just like anywhere in the city.”
“This is really the first time something’s happened with a car. ... You don’t normally see things like that happening,” the second employee said.
Associate Vice President for Public Safety James McShane could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.
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